Battlezone II: Combat Commander
Battlezone II: Combat Commander is a 1999 computer game released by Pandemic Studios as a sequel to Activision's 1998 Battlezone. Battlezone II features two races, the ISDF (humans) and the Scions (aliens). Like Activision's Battlezone, Battlezone II is a hybrid tank shooter, first-person shooter and real-time strategy game. The player pilots a tank, while using the function keys to select and command units. Overview The events of Battlezone II are set in an alternate version of the 1990s, in which access to alien technology necessitates the creation of an international peacekeeping force, the International Space Defense Force (ISDF), whose role is to oversee distribution of the rare bio-metal resource and mediate disputes between member nations. After the initial introduction segment of the game, the player learns that an extra-terrestrial fleet has gathered at the outskirts of the solar system. General Braddock, of the ISDF, orders the alien fleet destroyed. During the battles on Pluto and the soon-discovered Tenth Planet, called the "Dark Planet", it becomes apparent that the aliens, calling themselves the Scions, are in fact the remnants of a long-abandoned project to create super soldiers by merging bio-metal with human soldiers against their will. The player will play as Lieutenant John Cooke and will go on several missions under the command of Commander Shabayev on the Dark Planet. thumb|right| BZII In ActionAt a decisive segment in the middle of the game the player will have to either capture or rescue the character "Padishah Burns", the prototype of Project Pedigree (process of fusing humans with bio-metal) and leader of the Scions. Rescuing the Padishah will have the player defect to the Scion faction, and thus the game will proceed longer than if the player captures Padishah Burns. If the player captures Burns then the player will go on to destroy the Core planet thus committing genocide and thus the ending of the game portrays the player in a negative fashion. If the player instead defects to the Scion faction, the game changes in mood somewhat, and leads to a more positive ending. To win any given engagement, the player must battle through waves of enemies while establishing a base to build troops which can then be used to attempt to destroy the enemy base. To generate income, the player must capture bio-metal pools which provide a limitless, if slowly extracted, supply of material to construct a base and troops. Some scenarios do not feature a bio-metal pool, and as such the player must make use of the finite supply on the field of battle. One of the notable elements of the Battlezone series is that destroyed vehicles will leave behind a relative and substantial amount of biometal, thereby necessitating strategies that rely on numeric efficiency to minimize the resources you are fielding, thus starving your enemy and maximizing your funds. The game features a wide variety of missions, increasing in difficulty as the player progresses. Actors and actresses Battlezone II sported some known voice actors in both the film and game worlds. These included: *James Warwick as General Armond Braddock *Peter Jessop as John Cooke *Tasia Valenza as Yelena Shabayev *Lance LeGault as Major Henry Manson *Paul Eiding as Padishah Frank Burns *Warren Burton as Ambassador Kossieh Instant action Instant Action mode allows the player to play a single player game against the computer. Pre version 1.3, certain maps forced the player to use certain races, but the ability to switch races was added in 1.3. Technical issues Battlezone II was not made to be compatible with Windows 2000 and both its installation program and the main game executable will crash if run on that operating system. Battlezone II can be installed and run on Windows 2000 by using compatibility mode. The installation program \Setup\Setup.exe on the game CD must be run through a shortcut which is set to use compatibility mode with Windows 95 compatibility layer. In Windows 2000, the Compatibility-mode technology is not exposed by default, and requires the Service Pack 2 or later. To enable it, click Start, then Run..., type: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll and click OK. Additionally, a patch (v1.3) was released that not only improved the games stability, but made the game fully compatible with Windows 2000 and Windows XP, DirectX 8.1+, and added various new components to the gameplay. Although the 1.3 beta offers better technological support, some members of the Battlezone community feel that the gameplay has worsened and continue to play on version 1.2. Typically, those still using 1.2 are the only people who still play online. Modifications Battlezone II was designed to be able to support player modifications and featured an in-game mapping tool. Existing vehicles can be modified and new vehicles can be created. Weapons, buildings and missions can also be edited. Below are some examples of player-made mods for Battlezone II. Forgotten Enemies Forgotten Enemies is an unofficial expansion pack created by members of the game's community with some technical support from two of the game's original developers. It takes place a good time after the events of BZII, and adds 2 new alien races, the Hadean & the Cerberi, to the game and features an entire new story. (The story however, follows the events of the 'Scion' plotline, rather than the 'ISDF' plotline, in which the Scions are destroyed.) In this expansion pack, the ISDF, looking to shed any association with the embarrassment suffered under General Armond Braddock, change their name to the EDF, or Earth Defense Force. They currently share an uneasy truce with the Scions who have not yet forgotten the wrath of Braddock. The Scions, while scouting in space, report a disturbance coming from a wormhole. This transmission is cut off, however, leaving the EDF to go on the defensive. The 'disturbance' turns out to be the Hadeans, another race, whose intentions are unclear. Later on, the player encounters the Cerberi, a race of mechanical beings whose motive is also uncertain. FleshStorm FleshStorm is an expansion pack created by Lizard which details the Black Dog Squadron after the events of Forgotten Enemies. This mod brings to life many new planets, three new alien races, and many other new features. The planet of Gallus IV goes silent and the EDF is sent to investigate. On arrival they discover that the once tropical world is now a barren wasteland dotted with an unknown alien that has been named the Swarm. FleshStorm features a completely new look, eight singleplayer missions, and the ability to play as the Swarm, Phaer Rhan, or the Mechana in multiplayer. See also *''Battlezone'' *1999 in video gaming External links *Battlezone II mod development An active Battlezone II mod disscusion board. *Pandemic Studios official web site *Bzuniverse, an active Battlezone II discussion board *Downloads for many Battlezone II elements *Fleshstorm Fleshstorm unofficial expansion homepage *BZ2MAPS.COM BZ2MAPS.COM maps, files and community forums *Nathan Mates' Home Page Unofficial patch 1.3 Public Beta #3 *How To Enable Application Compatibility-Mode Technology in Windows 2000 SP2 and SP3 Microsoft knowledgebase article fr:Battlezone II: Combat Commander pt:Battlezone II: Combat Commander de:Battlezone II Category:1999 video games Category:Windows games Category:Video game sequels Category:Real-time strategy video games Category:First-person shooters Category:Science fiction video games Category:First-person strategy video games